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Help with PC? |
Eamonn
Joined: Nov 30, 2001
Posts: > 500
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Hi,
Just wondered if anyone could help me with my PC problem.
My PC restarts by itself about 5 times a day. I reformatted my PC and the problem is still the same.
someone told me it could be a problem with the keyboard & mouse, but i dont believe them!!
My computer is a Pentium 4 1.7Ghz, 256mb RAM, 80GB hard-drive
Does anybody know what the problem is and what I can do?
thanks a lot.
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Lusipher
Joined: Dec 11, 2001
Posts: 333
From: Norway
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OS? homebuilt?
[ This Message was edited by: Lusipher on 2002-02-07 10:23 ] |
Eamonn
Joined: Nov 30, 2001
Posts: > 500
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Quote:
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On 2002-02-07 10:23, Lusipher wrote:
OS? homebuilt?
[ This Message was edited by: Lusipher on 2002-02-07 10:23 ]
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os is win me & i got it assembled in a computer shop.
ta
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Lusipher
Joined: Dec 11, 2001
Posts: 333
From: Norway
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well... first me is not a stabile os but it doesnt crash that often...
is there any program the pc is especialy sensitive of? |
luguff
Joined: Jan 17, 2002
Posts: 68
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it could be any of the interrupt driven peripherals...
Does it also happen in safe mode?
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Eamonn
Joined: Nov 30, 2001
Posts: > 500
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Lusipher: i have no sensitive progs that i know of.
luguff: what do you mean by interrupt driven peripherals? I havn't tried it in safemode because there is no pattern of the restarts & i might have to wait many hours for it to restart.
I forgot to mention that this only happens ony 5 times a day. is there any possibility that it could be the kayboard & mouse?
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luguff
Joined: Jan 17, 2002
Posts: 68
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Quote:
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On 2002-02-07 10:45, ejasim wrote:
Lusipher: i have no sensitive progs that i know of.
luguff: what do you mean by interrupt driven peripherals? I havn't tried it in safemode because there is no pattern of the restarts & i might have to wait many hours for it to restart.
I forgot to mention that this only happens ony 5 times a day. is there any possibility that it could be the kayboard & mouse?
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Sorry for being unclear, but with interrupt driven peripherals I mean just as you question, mouse/keyboard, but also network card, sound card.
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Eamonn
Joined: Nov 30, 2001
Posts: > 500
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[/quote]
Sorry for being unclear, but with interrupt driven peripherals I mean just as you question, mouse/keyboard, but also network card, sound card.
[/quote]
thats quite alright & thanks for answering.
the thing is that I've had my PC since September & I have not changed any HW or pheripherals. the restart problem started in january and was ok before that. I also head that it could be the memory.
thanks.
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dmccabe
Joined: Jan 09, 2002
Posts: 25
From: Scotland, but living in Wales,
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I had the very same problem with my PC.
It was memory related.
I was using a dual DDR/SDRAM motherboard. I put in an athlon 1.2 ghz chip running an FSB of 133mhz, but also was running it on 512mb of DDR ram. (266mhz)
Every now and then through the day, it would drop into a reboot. I changed the DDR RAM to SDRAM, and never had a problem since.
Even though all motherboard jumper and BIOS settings were correct, Windows didn't seem to like the fact that there were opposing frequencies of the RAM and Chipset.
I agree with the fact that WinME isn't reliable. In actual fact, aside from Win95, its the most unreliable OS out there. I would also look into upgrading to Win2K or WinXP.
HTH
McCabe
[ This Message was edited by: dmccabe on 2002-02-07 13:09 ] |
barrypanju
Joined: Jan 28, 2002
Posts: 18
From: uk
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i have had this problem and with my computer it was the graphics card. when the card got too hot it decided to restart or crash. i got a g force 3 and now it does not restart or crash. the problem normally occurs with tnt2's |
ewap8
Joined: Nov 30, 2001
Posts: 398
From: Dubai
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ejasim, try booting ur pc, and keep pressing F8 from the moment the PC restarts............U will come up with a screen to allow u to boot in Safe Mode.
If the PC works in the safe mode perfectly, then the problem is with ur hardware or ur drivers.
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Cheys_007
Joined: Jan 26, 2002
Posts: 49
From: Manchester, UK
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Sounds supiciously like a heat problem. My PC always restarts should the temp get too high. (which is quite often as the motherboard contacts for the CPU fan are crap). Go into your BIOS and check the system temp (usually "Health Check" or similar). It should be around 35 +/- 3 degrees C at max.
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Eamonn
Joined: Nov 30, 2001
Posts: > 500
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thanks everyone for your suggestions.
barrypanju: I actually have a tnt2 card!! when urs kept on restaring & crashing, did vertical green lines show up at the top of the screen? did ur problem start as soon as you got ur tnt2 or a few months after?
dmccabe: I have RDRAM on an original intel pentium motherboard. do u think that this might be the problem?
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dmccabe
Joined: Jan 09, 2002
Posts: 25
From: Scotland, but living in Wales,
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Hmmm...all I know about RDRAM is that Intel has been using it in its P3 Xeon processors and more recently in its P4 processors.
If this is the original RAM that came with the board and chipset, then things 'should' be fine as far as that aspect of things go.
Check the frequencies in your BIOS settings to confirm that they all are running at the same speed.
CPU Temperature could be an option as well. (Thanks Cheys_007. I forgot about this.)
Done a bit of research there and found out that core temp should be below 70C. I know its highly unlikey that your chip will be reaching/exceeding this, but check anyway. An 'average' temperature should be around 25-30C Board/case temp, and 35-40C CPU temp.
As far as software problems are concerned, running the machine in 'Safe Mode' wouldn't really point to anything as there are very few active processes running. (Hence 'Safe Mode'). The reason the machine is rebooting is there is a conflict between an active process and the hardware that its trying to access. i.e Software asks hardware to do something. Hardware doesn't like this. Hardware Reboots.
Since you are running WinME, I would suggest this...
From the desftop, click on Start > Run > Type in 'msconfig'
Click on the last tab named 'Startup'
You can then select/deselect any running processes that are launched when windows boots up. This can easily help 'narrow down' any troublesome processes.
Full details of msconfig can be found here:
http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/
and here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q281995 |
Eamonn
Joined: Nov 30, 2001
Posts: > 500
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thank you very much dmccabe. Do you know why any hardware wouldnt like any software to access it? Could Norton antivirus be the problem?
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Posted: 2002-02-07 10:19
